Johannesburg – Where is Vittorio Massone?
As the SA Revenue Service (SARS) continues to pick up the pieces after falling victim to systematic state capture, one individual is seen to have played a key role in the entity’s near demise, Massone, continues about his business as normal.
He was in 2020 appointed executive director and vice-president of Alkemy SpA, an Italy-based company.
Massone arrived in South Africa in 2009 as a managing partner of Bain & Company Africa.
According to his website, Massone prides himself on having helped Bain “achieve market leadership in South Africa”. He makes no mention of his role in the capture of SARS, which led to Bain axing him in 2018.
Massone told the Nugent inquiry SARS was one of the first “targets” for Bain to access public sector business in the country. Evidence showed how Bain planned the restructuring of SARS even before it was appointed.
Massone met former SARS boss Tom Moyane for the first time in October 2013.
According to Massone’s evidence before judge Nugent in May 2014, Bain prepared a presentation called “TM First 100 days” for Moyane. This document “summarises for the candidate what his/her ‘report card’ should look like after the first 100 days in office, assuming he/she was to be appointed to the job/position”.
Nugent found it was “a clear strategy to be followed by Mr. Moyane upon his appointment at SARS”.
Moyane was only appointed SARS commissioner in September 2014. In November 2014, Moyane wrote to the minister of finance seeking his approval to approach independent consulting companies to assist with an evaluation of its operations. Bain was appointed and its restructure was “devastating for many employees who were displaced, and proved to be detrimental to the efficiency and governance of SARS”, Nugent found.
SARS is in the process of re-establishing many of the key units disbanded by Moyane.
Also read: ‘I’m glad I blew the whistle on Bain’s role in the capture of SARS’- Athol Williams
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